PANAJI
The State government claims to have issued notices to over 13,000 illegal recipients of the Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSS) for allegedly cheating the exchequer. In the last decade starting 2013, nearly 13135 citizens including some government servants are found to have illegally availed the financial benefit.
Replying to an unstarred question by Congress MLA Carlos Ferreira, Minister for Social Welfare Subhash Phal Dessai stated that notices have been issued to ineligible beneficiaries to recover the amount. The total amount recovered has however not been disclosed.
Among the total ‘illegal beneficiaries,’ maximum received their first disbursement in 2013, accumulating total benefits ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.92 lakh and beyond while only a few beneficiaries received funds less than Rs 1 lakh. Their lack of authenticity was revealed during government surveys followed by issuance of notices for recovery with 8 percent interest.
Back in 2004, two years after the scheme came into force, a Pune-based agency was appointed by the then government to conduct a survey and its report revealed that around 30 percent of the 40,000 beneficiaries were fake. In 2012, Planning and Statistics officials identified over a dozen government officials illicitly availing monthly benefits while still in service. A government crackdown led to another 35 government employees admitting to the violation, which resulted in the immediate discontinuation of benefits and the initiation of recovery with an 8 percent interest rate.
In 2017, former Minister Pandurang Madkaikar claimed that 25,000 fake beneficiaries were misusing the scheme. Subsequently, in 2019, the department began issuing notices to around 11,000 illegal beneficiaries.
